NORTHUMBRIA BLOOD BIKES
January 2018 - Please feel free to print, copy, save or forward this newsletter to increase awareness of our charity!
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Retired Retired
We say a fond farewell to ‘Claire’ our Triumph Trophy. She has served us well during her operational lifetime from 12th Aug 14 until retirement 4th Jan 18. Purchased with funds donated by Madathlon ‘Claire’ became our fifth blood bike in honour of Claire Gardiner. ‘Claire’ will be spending her retirement back in the hands of the Gardiner family. Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
On Christmas Eve our volunteers held an awareness stand at Durham’s Millennium Place. Our team of merry fundraisers, and honorary Elf-dog Dexter, greeted those last minute shoppers and those visiting the Gala Theatre. It was a great early Christmas present for us as we raised £435.45.
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Well Deserved Donation for Northumbria Blood Bikes Last year, the chosen charity of our President, Di Higham, was Northumbria Blood Bikes (NBB). Ladies of the Inner Wheel participated in various fundraising activities (coffee morning, quiz, etc) and raised the fabulous amount of ÂŁ1,000. Below, is a photo of Di reminding the IW members of the reason for her choice of charity and of its good work. John McKenzie of NBB drove up from Darlington and was presented with the cheque. Unfortunately, he could not stay for a meal as he had to drive all the way back to Darlington. He reminded us that, as an NB Biker, that distance was nothing! The photo of three people are Di Higham, John McKenzie of NB and Marjorie Hardie who is our current President. Providingon effective and Wheel timely transportation of essential blood and medical products You can find them Inner Registered Charity Number 1166689 Club of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Today EGGER (UK) Limited presented us with a new, fully serviced Yamaha motor bike and two years’ worth of fuel. Employees at the manufacturing company voted to support us and have spent the last two years raising funds to help. Throughout 2016 and 2017 a range of events have taken place from pub quizzes, fishing and golfing competitions, raffles and for the more adventurous regional and national challenges. We are extremely grateful for all the hard work the EGGER employees have undertaken to raise the funds. And, in recognition of this we have named the bike after the company. The bike is due to go into operational service in the next few weeks so keep your eyes peeled for it out on the road. Photograph above (from left to right): Tony Bewick, Kirsty Lawrence, Alan Johnson, Carol Malia, Dan McPherson and Bob Livesey. Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Is this the first time that a motorcycle has been inside Hexham Abbey? We think so!
and timely of essential blood and medical products We welcomedProviding in theeffective new year withtransportation a collection at Sainsbury’s, Washington Galleries, Registered Charity Number 1166689 and thanks to the generous donations from shoppers we raised £1,061.57.
We are delighted to announce that we have been chosen as a winner in the Aviva Community Fund. The ÂŁ25K we will be receiving will, go towards a new 4x4 vehicle to, help us to prepare for a reliable winter service. This news comes at a time when our volunteers are currently dealing with our unpredictable winter weather and another 4 wheeled vehicle will make a huge difference to the service we are able to provide. We would like to extend our thanks to everybody that shared and voted for us. Without your support it and would have been possible formedical us toproducts be awarded this Providing effective timelynot transportation of essential blood and Registered Charity Number 1166689 money.
As Northumbria Blood Bikes approached the start of their 96 hours of continuous service they began by spreading festive cheer to Great North Children's Hospital. It all started when one volunteer, Sean Jamieson, had an idea and spoke to other like minded members of the charity about a Blood Biking Santa run. After a bit of quick organisation a team was pulled together who then rallied donations of toys to deliver to the children. Many of those unfortunately find themselves spending Christmas in hospital undergoing specialist care. Thanks to the generous donations from volunteers, their friends and family plus the support of local companies Northumbria Blood Bikes were able to make an early delivery to the youngsters on the wards.
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Updates from the Committee: Geoff Spencer (Training Officer) New riders since last newsletter - Mark Hook-child, Frank Stewart , Colin Matthews, Clara Young, Vivek Vijayaraghaven New Drivers - Gary Tait, Clair McGaian, Anne Wilkinson, Frank Soulsby, Tony McMillan Annual assessment rides - Jo Hudson, Anthony Bewick, Gary Saunders, Sean Storey, Graham Moor, John Watts, Paul Gillian, Derek Farrow, Peter Kippax, Alan Johnson fleet, Brian Slassor, Tony McMillan, Frank Soulsby, Bill Deacon, Malcolm Farley, Sam Quidley, Ian Judd Annual Assessment drives - Gary Saunders, Sean Storey, Peter Kippax, John Buxton, Steven Huges, Alan Johnson, Alan Johnson Fleet, Brian Slassor, Colin Granton, Steven Green, Malcolm Cramman, Mervyn Hilton,Steve Tulloch,Mark Lovell, Barry Bullas, Malcolm Farley, Sam Quidley, Graham Moor, Suzanne Hitchinson, Rob Wilks, Ian Judd Blue Light Training - Jim Ludford, David O,Brie, Derrek Farrow, Graham Marshall, Harry Snee, Andrea Witherspoon, Chris Tolley,Mel Simmons, Mark Lovell, Jo Hudson, Andy Craford, Tiger Taylor, Richard Marshall, Stephen Green Sean Storey (Hospital Liaison) People who have completed AED and CPR familiarisation - Mark Taylor, Nick Burton, Benedikt Schlosser, Steve Tulloch, Jeff Glen, Graham Marshall, Gary Annan David Obrien, Frank Soulsby, Mervyn Hilton, Chris Mann, Philip Tumelty, Alan Johnson, Judith Geoff Spencer, Gary Tait, Nick Burton, Derek Henderson, Keith Robson, Alan Ross, Steve Rawlings, David MacDonald, Ian McNeish, Kevin Robson, Colin Granton, Ria Burnett, Joanne Hudson, Paul Skelton, Frank Soulsby and Malcolm Cramman. Rob Wilks (Membership Secretary) We had 24 new members join us last two months who have volunteered for the following areas: Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
2 fundraising, 14 as riders, 14 drivers and 6 controllers.
Alan Johnson (Fleet Manager) We had the official handover of our new bike ‘Egger’ 12 bottle de icer provided free of charge from CTS car supplies in Langley Moor, thank you goes to Rob Maddison manager at CTS and Frank Soulby We have also just taken delivery of the next FJR, which has been purchased by the Masonic Charity Foundation – name to be announced soon! ‘Claire’ was retired from our fleet and will be donated to the Gardiner family Monty Burton (Treasurer) We received £1000 donation from the Prison Service Charity Fund – photograph to follow in the next edition
Graham Moor (Fundraising Officer) We received £250 donation from Police Mutual (part of the Force for Good Community Sponsorship Programme) We received £15,000 from the Masonic Community Fund for a new bike We also were pleasantly surprised by Primula with a donation of £15,000 – so another bike order will be placed very soon We heard the great news that we were successful in winning £25,000 from the Aviva Community Fund – this is to purchase a new 4x4 vehicle to help us during the winter months Thanks to the customers of Asda at the Gateshead Metrocentre for voting for us to win the green tokens scheme for £500.
Steve Rawlings (Rota Manager) Many thanks to all riders and drivers who have braved the weather over this winter period. A reminder that details of suspension of bikes can be found on our website (members only – login required) > Library > Policies and Procedures > Procedure for the use of Cars and Suspension of Service due to Weather Conditions (document reference Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689 ROTA001)
Kirsty Lawrence (Publicity Officer) 7 talks were held in November,1 talk was held in December and 1 are being held in January. We are looking for somebody to help us develop talks suitable to give to younger audiences. If you have a background of working with children and would like to help please contact me on the email address below. The Chronicle’s Wish Tokens came to end at the start of January – if you have any tokens please send them by Monday 22nd January 2018 to: Northumbria Blood Bikes, C/O Kirsty Lawrence, 30 Sheridan Drive, East Stanley, Co Durham, DH9 6YU. Due to the growing work that goes into producing each newsletter I will be looking for an assistant newsletter editor in the coming months. In the mean time please continue to send any photographs and information (text to be included) from events, talks or anything else you would like to see included in the newsletter to my email address: publicity@northumbriabloodbikes.org.uk
Ronnie Paton (Vice Chair) When I was appointed as Vice-Chair, one of my aims was to have better integration within the membership. Since then, I have been working in the background on ways to achieve this, the first being a “Your Views” meeting with some new NBB members, to get their views and feedback of the process of becoming a member to completing their first shift. It was a good turnout from invitees and a good split between all NBB roles. I would like to thank everyone for attending the Saturday afternoon event at Tesco Consett (Thanks Kirsty for arranging). We received a lot of good feedback and could have spent a lot more time together than allocated. Some of the feedback was a bit of an eye opener to me and will be considered by the Committee, however some points raised can be easily resolved and I am committed to do this in the short term. The overall outcome from attendees was that the session was very worthwhile and would be beneficial ifProviding it was effective a regular occurrence, of which I am happy to facilitate. I will also think and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registeredmembers Charity Number a similar session open to longer serving will1166689 be beneficial so watch this space.
Mike Thompson (Chair) I can’t believe it is January already! Happy New Year everybody. It looks like this year might break the run of mild winters that we’ve had and we’ve already seen some pretty cold nights. As most of you will know, the regulations don’t allow us to carry whole blood by motorcycle once the temperatures drop below three degrees centigrade. We review the weather forecasts every day so please look out for notices of suspension of “Blood on Bikes” when you are starting a shift. When the temperature drops even lower, the conditions can quickly become treacherous for those on two wheels. If we think it is necessary we’ll implement a complete suspension of motorcycle operations. We’re planning to make the Kangoo more accessible, to bolster the four-wheeled fleet, during the bad weather (I realise that may not be an incentive for some!) so if you are able to you should be prepared to switch to a car instead and, of course, we hope all available drivers will step forward. We’ve noticed that the rota has been filled without quite so much chasing this year (for which we thank each and every one of you) and we hope this will continue through the winter so we can keep the blood flowing. That said, if at any time you think the local conditions make it unsafe to ride, or drive, you should say so - There are no prizes for being a hero and having an accident so please be safe. Speaking of keeping things flowing, November’s and December’s statistics show that we set new records in the months, with 1,095 completed jobs in November and then a whopping 1,191 jobs completed in December. During November, we also passed the milestone of 25,000 jobs completed since we started live operations. I like to think of that as 25,000 people that we’ve helped. The hospitals don’t call us for the fun of it. Every one of those jobs, represents the transfer of a package that has improved somebody’s healthcare. You should be proud. We completed over 12,000 jobs in 2017 – that’s the first time we’ve averaged over 1,000 jobs per month for an entire year, and a 30% increase over 2016. And, yes, as those of you who like maths will have already worked out, those 12,000 jobs in 2017 equate to almost half of the jobs we’ve ever done even though we’ve been live approaching four years. We just keep getting busier! Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689
Continued on the next page...
...Continued from the previous page Looking back over last year, we all have reason to be pleased. On top of the record numbers of jobs, we’ve also had a bumper year for fundraising and we continue to push our story and raise our profile across the region. Of course, receiving the Queens Award for Voluntary Services in the summer was a great for achievement for us and recognises both the importance of what we do and the professionalism and dedication with which you all do it. Well Done. Whether you are a fundraiser, a speaker, a shift controller, a rider, a driver, one of our many admin assistants or simply an advocate for NBB I thank you all for efforts which led to the award. I hope, of course, that you’ll stick with us for many years to come. You’ll have recently received your invitation to renew your membership with NBB. As we don’t have a membership fee, we ask all volunteers, once a year, to confirm that they want to remain part of the group. It allows us to keep our figures accurate (they can be an important part of our fundraising bids) and it stops us contacting those who no longer want to be contacted. When you receive your invitation, please take (literally) two minutes to complete the online questionnaire and please stay with us. Mike Proud Chair of Northumbria Blood Bikes
We would like to extend our congratulations to our friend Lieutenant Colonel Rachel Hawes, Royal Army Medical Corps, Army Reserve for receiving an O.B.E in the New Year’s Honours. Very well deserved! Thank you Rachel for all your work with the Great North Air Ambulance Service and bringing ‘Blood & Plasma on Board’ to the North East. Well done to our Patron, Heidi Mottram, for being in the Top 25 Industry Leaders – Water & WasteWater International. We are proud to be associated with her, and for her work promoting Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products what Blood Bikes doRegistered in theCharity Industry. Number 1166689
FUTURE EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY: Lots of things happening, and we need your help to support them! If you can help, even if only for a couple of hours, please contact us….information is at the bottom of this page. NBB members can register their attendance for most of these events on our website (login required). January Saturday
20th
Tesco Newton Aycliffe Door Collection 09:00 until 17:00 (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
January Sunday
21
st
Dobbies Ponteland 10:30 until 16:00 (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
February
February
Saturday
Sunday
3rd
4th
Dobbies Ponteland 10:30 until 16:00 (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
February Thursday
8
th
Tesco Newton Aycliffe Door Collection 09:00 until 17:00 (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
February Friday
23
rd
Tesco Chester-le-Street Door Collection 09:00 until 17:00 (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
February Saturday
24th
Dobbies Ponteland 10:30 until 16:00 (Full details on the event calendar login and volunteers required)
April Saturday
21
st
Calendars at the ready as it’s time to save the date for the 3rd annual 360 challenge - Saturday 21st April 2018 - watch this space for more details coming soon!
www.northumbriabloodbikes.org.uk
FUNDRAISING HOTLINE:
facebook.com/northumbriabloodbikes
0191 364 3113
twitter.com/northumbriabb linkedin.com/company/2866951
- for any opportunities to increase our funding through sponsorship, locations for collecting tins, supermarket events etc…
Providing effective and timely transportation of essential blood and medical products Registered Charity Number 1166689